I've got to hand it to M. Night Shyamalan: His releases are always preceded by killer previews. Whether he can make a film that's half as good, however, is another matter.
His latest, "The Village" has a wicked little trailer that promises pure, crawl-under-your-seat terror. Come to think of it, so did his last flick, "Signs." But like that film, perhaps even more so, what we get is a movie that's strangely lacking in the fright department. Rule No. 1 of horror/suspense filmmaking: Your audience should never, ever, get to the climax and be left wondering, "Is that it?"
Despite what the trailers would have us think, Shyamalan's films are less scare-fests than exercises in the out-of-left-field, last-reel surprise. These are the sort of cheap tricks that can fuel a decent 25 minutes of "The Twilight Zone" or "Creepshow," but seem rather hard to sustain over a full two hours.
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